Pinball Aficionado is my personal labor of love and is for you, the pinhead, the pinball fan, the aficionado. It is for everyone, from the person who is just entering the hobby and is trying to understand what all the hoopla is about, to the seasoned collector with 30 years of experience under his or her belt. Enjoy!

Friday, September 12, 2014

The World of Modding! - Part 2: Physical Mods

Hand crafted, customized "Candy Apple" plungers to go on many different games...

Continuing on from my last update about the world of Modding. I decided to start by looking into how people trick out their personal games with different art, toys, and customization options.

Let's face it, if you're gonna drop anywhere from 500-9000 dollars on anything, (let alone a pinball machine) you better be happy with it! Jeez...It would totally suck if you weren't happy after dropping that kind of dough....*shivers*...yikes. Anyway, not everyone is happy with how a particular game looks when it leaves the factory. Some may like the gameplay but hate the artwork, others might find the interactive toys lacking, or the game missing that special something that the designer should have included, but didn't because of cost, time, or lack of foresight. Because of that, people turn to modifications to make their games look better, be more personalized, and in turn, the overall experience improves and they have more fun playing them.

Custom guitar toy and additional side wall art added to a SternMetallica

There are many big name "Modders" out there who create these modifications and sell them online. Among them are the likes of "Mike D", "Aurich", "Pinball Pimp", "Pingraffix", "Mezelmods", and of course, "Pinball Refinery" just to name a few (click any of those links and prepare to go "Whoa!!!!" because all those guys do incredibly amazing work)!

Along with these guys, there is another big modder that has been making a name for himself in the scene lately. He goes by the illusive moniker "The Modfather" and has been creating several very popular items for pinball aficionados that have found their way on games from Seattle to Boston and everywhere in between. After moving mountains, making many clandestine phone calls, sending smoke signals, and solving intricate clues with secret passwords, I discerned his hidden location and was FINALLY granted access to see his work in person......Phew!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suffice it to say I was impressed. He's very good at doing customized pinball toys, hand crafted art flourishes, along with stenciling and has a real passion for detail. Then he showed a few other things that he has done...

That is the upper left playfield on the Wizard of Oz pinball game. Originally those walls were flat, the texture on them a simple print. The Modfather went and made his own set of walls that give significant depth and detail. The walls look great and have become very popular and as such, he has been selling them online to WOZ owners all over the world.

A Wall of Walls......

One last thing he showed me was his new "Candy Apple" shooter rod plungers. These are custom shooters that are hand painted to match any game that uses a standard plunger.

Custom painted shooter rod plungers...

Oooh Pretty!

Plunger for WOZ

Looks kind of like a planet almost....

The paints that are used....

Custom ACDC "Candy Apple" Shooter on the game...

I asked him where one could buy his mods, and he said that you can order his work from several websites including:Pinside Forum

Well there we are, if one is going to spend serious money on something like a Pinball machine, the least you can do is trick it out to your taste so that you love it all the more. Just like how people mod cars or boats, others mod pinball machines.Till next time, where we see how modding has changed the look of lighting in pinball forever!Feel free to comment below!